Due to the character of the original source materials and the nature of batch digitization, quality control issues may be present in this document. Please report any quality issues you encounter to [email protected], referencing the URI of the item.Includes bibliographical references (leaf 19).Levels of detail are an effective means of reducing computational power in three-dimensional computer animations. Simpler models are used to represent objects farther away from the camera. Without this simplification, the processor may get bogged down with calculations, resulting in a considerable drop in the speed of the animation. This slowdown is undesirable, especially when dealing with interactive animations. The purpose of this research is to simplify a model of a tree represented using a Lindenmayer system, or L-system. To generate a tree, an L-system takes a set of parameters, such as branch length, and iterates through those parameters a given number of times. The traditional approach to simplifying objects by reducing the number of polygons will not work on such a parameter based model. Further complications arise from the fact that the trees being animated here are not static models; they are constantly in motion due to a simulated wind. A suitable method for simplification must reduce the number of iterations and adjust the given parameters in order to keep both the overall shape, size, and motion of the tree close to the original full size model
